SLS 858

~ Laura

We all got colds when we were in the Berkshires last weekend, so things are very sniffly and semi-miserable around here at the moment. I’m on half-battery.

Bari Weiss and her anti-woke mafia are starting a new university. Good luck with that one. This is all silly-town stuff for me. I could write about it, but I don’t want to waste brain cells.

Crazy jump in prices for used cars and trucks. Why?

Yes, more parents are going to be running for elections in school boards in the near future. Just got off the phone with a local parent on a related matter. Now that schools are open, what’s the next issue going to be? Around here? It’s equity.

As a child of the 1980s and the Preppy Handbook, I am a sucker for some beautiful (and very expensive) Fair Isle sweaters.

At the 74, Beth Hawkins is reporting on new innovative career training programs. Super interesting. LOVE THIS!

Okay, want to hate something? Check out Ivy Getty’s fantasy wedding. Idiotic rich people!

Sad that Powell’s is having a hard time, but online book selling is doing very well.

PICTURE: Edith Warton’s study. Look at those books! I could flip those for so much money!

WATCHING: Succession, Squid Games, Eternals

COOKING: Chicken and black bean burrito’s

Published by Laura

56 thoughts on “SLS 858”

  1. “Bari Weiss and her anti-woke mafia are starting a new university. Good luck with that one. This is all silly-town stuff for me. I could write about it, but I don’t want to waste brain cells.”

    I don’t know if they’ve got the money or if there is a niche for what they want to do, but a few thoughts:

    –Bari Weiss would make a heck of a journalism professor. Since being mean-girled out of the NYT, she’s done very well turning her Substack into a sort of Bari Weiss Magazine. She’s made good use of guest writers, and she’s grossing in excess of $800k a year. She seems to be a very gifted editor and I think she would be very valuable as an instructor herself. (I studied Russian and print journalism in college and I had a lot of classes taught by working journalists.)
    –I LOVE the idea of Austin as a location. It’s got population growth, it’s a state capital, there’s a lot of tech in the area, it’s got Elon Musk nearby doing his thing, it’s got a huge cool factor, etc. there’s potential synergy with UT Austin, etc. The Austin location could make the project. (Although I kind of suspect that–due to real estate constraints–they will wind up in the suburbs.)
    –I don’t love the graduate degree thing. That sounds scammy.

    Like

    1. I tried not to read about the new university, but was sucked into Douhat’s annoying article. As usual, the fact that there are hundreds or even thousands of public universities and community colleges desperately in need of money to serve lower and middle-income students who actually live near them, often providing programs they want, in places much less fancy and exciting than Austin, is totally left out. Another project by, for, and creating the rich.

      I am so tired of the idea that elite colleges are the only ones that matter or even exist.

      Like

      1. Yes, well, Bari Weiss. If she has been so cancelled how come I always have to hear about her? The irony is that for all that she is about iconoclasm cancel culture and free speech and speaking truth to power, she made her bones at Columbia trying to get faculty sanctioned for saying the wrong things about Israel. So forgive me if I throw up in my mouth every time she goes on her one-track rants now.

        But anyway, Bari Weiss U. Who, exactly is the target market here? Weiss and Douthat did very well for themselves at Columbia and Harvard so you can’t say that there isn’t a place for such students in the Ivies. As far as I can tell, the student they are marketing to are the ones who want to read “The Bell Curve” and spend all their time debating with their black colleagues whether or not they are smart enough to have earned their place. Doesn’t Hillsdale College and Liberty University adequately serve that market already?

        And what is this with Austin? If I was actually looking to establish a reputable brick and mortar university rather than a realization of all the worst TED talks I would drop it somewhere that is under-served for elite education and has cheap real estate. Somewhere like Detroit or Buffalo or Cincinnati or Birmingham. But that would sort of defeat the purpose of becoming “Bell Curve U” while hanging out with Elon Musk and his VC friends, wouldn’t it?

        Like

      3. I am really trying not to pay attention to Bari Weiss U as well, but am wondering what the funding is. At first, especially with the pictures of their initial space, I assumed this was just a public relations move for BW and her crowd to attract attention (and potentially substack subscribers). But, with the rest of the board, I there must be money somewhere. Is it going to be secret money? There’s money already being spent at the Ivy’s by those folks — Brown has the Political Theory Project, Koch funded, Columbia has the Heterodox Academy (and they’re connected, Brown’s guy moved to Columbia this year).

        And as Jay said, I want to see the points under the mission statement. What will a fearless search for the truth involve? Rehashing the Bell Curve? Discussing gender, including whether women can do math? Saying the N word freely in some circumstances (like when reading from text), or just because you want to? Doing those things with people who will still invite you to parties after you tell them some people are just stupid? As we know, people aren’t being fired from Yale or Columbia for those things, so it must be the parties.

        Like

      4. Mercer, Koch, Thiel, Musk all have plenty of money to burn on vanity projects like this.

        Gates, French-Gates, Laurene Powell, Bezos, Mackenzie Scott also have money to burn, but seem to be spending it on K-12 education, media projects, space projects, health, and gender equity

        I really think that the money at those levels is distorting our economy and our politics and our non-profits. And I say this in a place where a lot of this money is going to efforts I support, like public health, cancer research, neuroscience research, . . . . Each of those places is being twisted by the money available and the people who have it. Sometimes in ways that are long lasting and difficult to detect unless you are enmeshed in the enterprized (like prioritizing one disease over another or one research model over another).

        Like

      5. In some ways, I prefer it when folks spend their money on Galliano dresses and 60’s wedding parties. Distorting the art world doesn’t bother me as much (except for the money laundering)

        Like

      6. Jay wrote, ” Weiss and Douthat did very well for themselves at Columbia and Harvard so you can’t say that there isn’t a place for such students in the Ivies.”

        To be fair, that was a long time ago. Douthat is 41 and Weiss is 37 and things have changed a lot since then.

        “Doesn’t Hillsdale College and Liberty University adequately serve that market already?”

        Hillsdale is in Michigan and Liberty (which is not exactly that market at all) is in VA. Texas is not exactly saturated with colleges, and the state population has increased by nearly 50% over the past 20 years.

        “And what is this with Austin? If I was actually looking to establish a reputable brick and mortar university rather than a realization of all the worst TED talks I would drop it somewhere that is under-served for elite education and has cheap real estate. Somewhere like Detroit or Buffalo or Cincinnati or Birmingham.”

        Why wouldn’t you want to put a college in a place well-situated for internships and where students have a good shot at landing jobs in the area?

        The location is actually brilliant.

        Like

      7. Going back to what Jay wrote here:

        “If I was actually looking to establish a reputable brick and mortar university rather than a realization of all the worst TED talks I would drop it somewhere that is under-served for elite education and has cheap real estate. Somewhere like Detroit or Buffalo or Cincinnati or Birmingham.”

        COVID has made a big difference in college quality of life in different parts of the country. I know that (given your COVID views) you won’t like hearing this, but Texas has been much more livable for college students during the 2021-2022 school year than many Northeastern or CA colleges. Our local Hometown U. has had a very light touch this year (masks mostly required just in classrooms/labs and the option of testing in lieu of vaccination), and it has worked really well. The surrounding community had a huge COVID wave that barely made a ripple on campus.

        Having seen how COVID rules played out in different states, no right-leaning person would want to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into creating a campus in a state like Michigan or New York that would be likely to be subject to blue state strictures going forward, especially given the likelihood of there being other ways for the blue state to put a boot on their neck. Why borrow trouble when you can so easily avoid it?

        It’s also not dirty pool to build a college in a location that students will be excited to go to.

        Like

      8. bj, the point you are making “the money at those levels is distorting our economy and our politics and our non-profits.” is an important one, and I don’t agree with you. I think it’s a huge asset to the nation that there are competing visions of how to do – education, biological research, social science research, whatever. We have rich lefties throwing money at rich lefty causes and rich righties throwing money at rich righty causes and other rich guys buying up old Cords and Duesenbergs and having a museum for them. NIH is the counter example, committees of worthies looking at grant applications and giving money to late-fifties researchers extending existing lines of research. You are better off having some disruptors in there.

        Like

      9. McMegan had a column about the U of Austin today https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/12/university-austin-founders-challenge-creating-college-another-time/
        “The people behind the University of Austin are right to worry that a fringe has weaponized this prestige to attack dissent on important issues. This ersatz consensus leads to botched research and declining trust in academic expertise — most disastrously during the pandemic, when public health experts started making exceptions to previous guidance in an effort to favor historically disadvantaged groups.

        But if dissent is so unwelcome within these departments, will it get a fairer hearing coming from Austin? “The University of Austin” could become the academic equivalent of “Fox News” for the left — an invitation to automatic dismissal, without any examination of the underlying facts.

        But the university itself will also face a related problem. Most people go to college less to get an education than to get an educational credential. In a two-sided market, Austin will need to sell students to employers and graduate programs to be able to sell itself to students.”

        Like

  2. “Okay, want to hate something? Check out Ivy Getty’s fantasy wedding.”

    And play “Where’s Waldo?” with major Democratic politicians!

    Like

  3. OK, I kind of like the broken glass dress. I myself have a dress made with broken mirrors and embroidery.

    Rich people’s parties? Eh. I don’t hate them and think they are kind of fun to observe. I think there’s art in the productions and in couture fashion. And, I think the right way to deal with billionaires is to take their money away.

    Like

    1. bj said, “And, I think the right way to deal with billionaires is to take their money away.”

      Pssst, look at who the bride’s family friends are!

      Like

  5. “At the 74, Beth Hawkins is reporting on new innovative career training programs. Super interesting. LOVE THIS!”

    From the second paragraph of the article:

    “Could apprenticeships with local chefs keep disaffected Delaware teens in high school and reopen the state’s restaurants, the source of one-tenth of its jobs?”

    No, no and no. I would never support this.

    There is a high level of abuse (verbal and physical), drug and alcohol use, and overall stress in a kitchen. I would not put middle school kids in that kind of workplace.

    Not to mention that the reason they want this is for the cheap labor.

    Like

    1. Not to mention, would restaurants even want teenagers in the kitchens? One reason fast food could hire teenagers was that most of the food was pre made and dumped into the fryer or on the grill. But other restaurants would probably be a bad fit, except for busing tables. Serving would be an issue because of alcohol.

      Like

      1. My kiddo tells me that at 18 he is allowed to serve alcohol in our state. I haven’t verified myself, so he might be wrong, but it would be interesting, if true. He can’t by cigarettes, alcohol, or edibles or weed, but can buy a lottery ticket, spray paint, and go to strip clubs.

        Like

      2. bj said, “My kiddo tells me that at 18 he is allowed to serve alcohol in our state.”

        I have heard of that type of exception existing in some states.

        Like

    2. I have hopes for these programs and don’t think they need to be exploitative. We’re underestimating teenagers if we think the *can’t* do the job (though whether they will is another question). I think those of us who are academically inclined, who liked school — or at least the learning we did in school– underestimate how much the model might not fit some. I think of the woman profiled in a report I linked to in another thread, whose brain lit up when she learned to wire a circuit to light a bulb (and now hopes to be a certified electrician). I think to justify the hopes for these programs, we need them not to be exploitative, and that is mostly about money. The students must be paid while they are learning and offered reasonable chances of jobs if they can learn to do productive work. And, subsidies might be required to make both those things happen.

      I’m reading Cammie McGovern’s “Hard Landings” about navigating the “cliff” of special needs services with her son, who has autism and ID. I think she does a decent job of discussing the ugly history of “sheltered” programs in parallel with what she thinks people with disabilities might need in order to “have a life”. A bottom line for her is that she thinks that jobs for many children like her son (autism, ID, and a strong personality) an integrated setting (she speaks of the failure of bagging groceries, nursing home work, greeting at Applebies, . . . .) is a failure. What did work for her son was a social enterprise/not-for-profit: https://www.servicenet.org/services/vocational-services/prospect-meadow-farm/ that tries to integrate work with services.

      Children who have disengaged during the pandemic don’t have disabilities, but they might benefit from integrating work with school and I don’t want to throw away the idea without trying it.

      Like

      1. There are hundreds of thousands of kids who have been lost to public education during the pandemic. Of course, job training for young kids is suboptimal. Everyone should have the chance to learn history and literature until 18. But the reality is that the school closures destroyed tons of children/teens. Destroyed them. I think we have to look at all options to help them out, even suboptimal options.

        That said, a middle school does not belong in a kitchen. Jonah has stories about those guys. On the other hand, a sheltered, supported restaurant experience might be okay. Ian is a bus boy right now with support, and that’s fine.

        I have to take a look at that Hard Landings book.

        This transition stuff is brand new. Programs are popping up everywhere. College isn’t for everyone and lots of kids are not going to be able to finish high school either. We can’t pretend this problem does not exist.

        Like

      2. There is a retail garden center near me that exists to provide employment for people with autism and ID.

        empoweringgardensinc.org

        Its only drawback is that it closes during the winter. On the other hand, the same population is also employed as baggers in the Jewel food stores chain — I don’t see it as a failing program. Some people get promoted to other jobs in the stores. It’s not for everyone, but win-win.

        Like

      3. I’m half way through and recommend “Hard Landings” (was able to get it from the library). It’s not an easy book, detailing the difficulties and failures of now and the atrocities of the past. It gives me insight into how well-intentioned efforts can go awry (the first group setting, which eventually turned into a truly horrible asylum was designed by a activist who wanted to give people with ID an opportunity to develop and be educated, and did, in the beginning). The author also writes about the dismay of an educator at the center of the de-institutionalization movement at the end of his career when he saw the lack of will to provide support in integrated settings.

        I don’t have any special knowledge or special interest (except as a voter and taxpayer and a interested member of the public), which offers me a certain distance. But, I liked the history but really appreciated the individual stories about why particular placements worked or didn’t at the personal level. She also visits a variety of enterprises that have been set up to employ people with disabilities (a car wash in the south, the animation studio in CA, . . . ). Almost all of them, because of someone with entrepreneurial skills who wants to provide employment for someone they care about.

        Like

      4. Yes, there’s a huge vacuum. Deinstitutionalization without anything to replace it.

        I know that animation studio. Ian got into the program and might take some some online classes in the spring.

        People can be disabled for many different reasons; they may have no social skills, have an ID, a behavior issue, a health/physical issue, mental health issue, history of trauma, or multiple issues. There needs to be separate programs to handle each issue. It’s very complicated.

        Like

      5. Laura said, “I think we have to look at all options to help them out, even suboptimal options.”

        Right. If a kid is not in school and is home all the time and/or on the street getting into trouble, it’s important to have some way of productively re-engaging with school and the working world, even it wouldn’t normally be ideal.

        By the way, what are the alternative schools doing right now? That’s another article idea, although not necessarily one that the Atlantic is going to go into a bidding war for. But it’s important–that’s been one of the main strategies previously for dealing with kids who have “unfinished learning” and already have one foot in the adult world.

        Like

      6. There are not many alternative schools. There were a few promising programs happening here and there, but the pandemic kills a lot of programs. Some big box stores that used to be great sites for job training completely suspended those programs and haven’t started them up again.

        Like

      7. bj wrote, “She also visits a variety of enterprises that have been set up to employ people with disabilities (a car wash in the south, the animation studio in CA, . . . ). Almost all of them, because of someone with entrepreneurial skills who wants to provide employment for someone they care about.”

        There’s a chain of coffee shops that is opening up, that will provide employment for disabled people.

        I’m not 100% sure that coffee shops are ideal as a workplace (too loud, too complicated), but it’s one of the options.

        Like

      8. I’ve finished Hard Landings. It was a good library read, library because didn’t tie everything together enough to make it a book I’d consider it definitive.

        My take home is that needs are very individual, as you say. And, government resources operate poorly when needs are very individual. Will different advocates coalesce around solutions?

        I learned that the people charged with de-institutionalizing the worst places, like the Belchertown State School for the Feeble-Minded are haunted by what happened to people under state institutional care. They want a model where the state does not become the caretaker, because they do not trust the state. In practice, though, the lack of a governmental system for care means that 75% of people with disabilities live with their parent/guardian in an underfunded system in which caretakers take on the responsibility because they love the person they are caring for. The state (and this includes the taxpayers, legislators, etc.) aren’t coming up with more money, which would be required for any system that supported the individuals without exploiting someone’s labor. People with disabilities who can advocate for themselves and want to live independently don’t want rules to be shifted away from providing the resources they need to live independently, without volunteer labor (including that of parent/guardians), even though they are the minority, living independently.

        My final criticism of the book is that it was too parent-centered — ultimately, in the modern world, with a modern understanding of the rights of the disabled. parents are going to have to make these arguments for the appropriate living environments with their adult children, not for their adult children.

        Like

  6. So is there a poli sci and/or history scholarly literature on inheritable dictatorships that are not monarchies?

    This seems like a good place to ask that kind of a question. A cursory jstor search turned up a fair number of one-country articles and chapters (lots of Somozas and Kims, a smattering on South Vietnam and Equitorial Guinea, fewer Aliyevs and Assads) but not really anything more comprehensive. But it seems unlikely that my musings with a co-blogger would have turned up an actual gap in the literature. Laura, any ideas?

    Like

    1. Hereditary Succession in Modern Autocracies, by Jason Brownlee
      Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 June 2011
      World Politics , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , July 2007 , pp. 595 – 628
      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/wp.2008.0002

      “Hereditary succession, the conventional method for preserving monarchies, has also been used to perpetuate republic-style dictatorships. With an original data set of 258 post-World War II nonmonarchical autocrats, the author tests Gordon Tullock’s hypothesis that hereditary succession appeals to the ruler and to nonfamilial elites wary of a leadership struggle. The full data and close comparisons of succession outcomes are consistent with Tullock’s account. In the absence of prior experience selecting a ruler through a party, regime elites accepted filial heirs apparent; when the incumbent had arisen from a party, his successor predominantly emerged from that organization. Among twenty-two cases of potential hereditary succession, variations in institutional history account for 77 percent of succession outcomes. Where the ruler preceded the party, five rulers in seven cases groomed sons and all five sons took office. In contrast, where the party predated the ruler, incumbents successfully installed sons in only three of fifteen cases.”

      Something like this? Sorry – couldn’t get the full article because Cornell finally took away my daughter’s library access post-graduation. 😦

      Like

      2. Steve’s on the phone now. Will ask him in a bit. In the pol sci world, this falls under the category of comparative literature, which I’m not an expert. But a certain professor at Queens College that we both know is an expert on comparative politics.

        Like

      3. A bit tongue in cheek… Like this one:
        All in the families: it’s not just the Clintons to the Bushes, political families have become a staple of U.S. politics.(UNITED STATES) By: Abel, Allen, Maclean’s, 00249262, , Vol. 128, Issue 22

        Like

    2. Steve said Napoleon. There’s a big debate among historians about whether he was recreating a monarchy or it was something entirely new. He spent a lot of time putting family and friends in key positions with plans of succession.

      Like

      1. Thanks! Vive l’Empereur, or something like that.

        Cologne, where my better half has family, is interestingly affectionate toward Napoleon. Moscow, as you can imagine, is not. Except in a “neener neener” kind of way. I never did get to see the panorama of Borodino, despite changing metro lines nearby quite a bit. Oh well.

        Like

      2. Doug wrote, “Cologne, where my better half has family, is interestingly affectionate toward Napoleon.”

        In Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz (big Polish classic), Napoleon’s army is seen as a liberating force.

        “Moscow, as you can imagine, is not.”

        They like the pastry, though…

        Like

      3. “In Mickiewicz’s Pan Tadeusz (big Polish classic), Napoleon’s army is seen as a liberating force.”

        As well it might have been! I think I’ve told my Polish Minister of Defense joke here before.

        I should dig up my copy of Pan Tadeusz and give it another go. Litwo! Ojczyzno moja!

        Like

    3. A bit tongue in cheek… Like this one:
      All in the families: it’s not just the Clintons to the Bushes, political families have become a staple of U.S. politics.(UNITED STATES) By: Abel, Allen, Maclean’s, 00249262, , Vol. 128, Issue 22

      Like

      1. And, as a serious response, the really interesting one is Singapore. Where the current prime minister is the son of the first PM Lee Kwan Yew.
        We tend to think of autocracies – especially inherited ones as a bad thing – only benefiting the leadership (cf North Korea) – but Singapore has been a (effectively) a one-party state, highly intolerant of political dissent, and controlled by the same tight group of political leaders – while at the same time having outstanding success in economic terms – and success which doesn’t rest on the ‘inherited wealth’ of oil resources (cf Saudi Arabia), and which is shared by the vast majority of Singaporeans.

        Like

  7. I sort of lost my way in the threading, but I’d like to re-pitch an idea that I’ve shared before here.

    Years ago, I had a job teaching ESL to workers at a big downtown Pittsburgh bank. The workers were almost all refugees from the former Yugoslavia and they worked in mail processing for the bank. Anyway, they would come in and spend a couple hours of class during the working day doing ESL and they got paid for it. I forget how much of a time commitment it was–it was probably at least 90 minutes at least twice a week.

    It has occurred to me that that model could work well for some large employers (maybe Amazon warehouses?) where you might have a large concentration of employees who would benefit from tying up some educational loose ends.

    In related news, I heard an employment ad in the car tonight that I wanted to share. Sherwin Williams is offering warehouse workers starting wages of $20 an hour (take that Amazon!) and they say that their commercial drivers are earning around $84k a year.

    Of course, inflation is happening, but still–there’s a lot of upward pressure on nominal blue collar wages.

    Like

  8. @moshik_temkin tweeted, “People are laughing at the University of Austin but the current state of affairs in academia is such that if they advertise for a tenure track job in history they’ll get like 400 applications.”

    OUCH!

    Like

    1. Not an ouch at all. A tenure-track job in a big city with lots of good restaurants and music, and all sorts of good jobs for spouses/partners? I bet a lower-tier community college in Austin gets that many applications. Of course I wouldn’t raise a daughter in Texas right now for all the money (or restaurants) in the world, but not everyone has daughters.

      I’d love to be a fly on the wall on those faculty search committees, to really get a sense of what The Fearless Search for Truth involves. “Must be willing to study the Black experience in America while scrupulously avoiding any conclusions that it differs in any way from the white experience in America.” “Must be a gender essentialist, but only on certain issues, and we’ll let you know what those are.”

      Like

      1. Anonymous said, “Of course I wouldn’t raise a daughter in Texas right now for all the money (or restaurants) in the world, but not everyone has daughters.”

        Yep, that explains the overflowing freshman dorms, the multitude of out-of-state license plates I see every day, and the non-stop construction.

        Back in the real world, most people want a house and a job, open schools, and a reasonable daily quality of life a lot more than they want unlimited abortions.

        Like

      2. Well I’m old now, but I would not feel free without access to abortion (oh, and a government that wants me to vote). It’s always a bad idea to speak for “most people”.

        Like

      3. bj said, “Well I’m old now, but I would not feel free without access to abortion (oh, and a government that wants me to vote). It’s always a bad idea to speak for “most people”.”

        And I don’t feel free having to mask my (now partially vaccinated) autistic/ADHD 9-year-old on airplanes, buses, and other transit as we will have to do when we visit our family on the West Coast this winter…When she and I traveled this summer, there were two days where she (theoretically) needed to be masked about 12 hours to comply with current federal regulations in order to see our family in WA.

        I am very, very happy that she doesn’t have to mask at school all day in Texas anymore. (There are TX school districts fighting the state, of course.)

        I’m also happy that I live in a state that is vigorously fighting against federal vaccine mandates for workplaces.

        We all have different notions of what freedom looks like.

        Like

      4. bj said, “Well I’m old now, but I would not feel free without access to abortion (oh, and a government that wants me to vote). It’s always a bad idea to speak for “most people”.”

        If you’re right about the overwhelming popularity of unlimited abortion in the US, you should have no qualms leaving it as a matter for elected state representatives to decide.

        Like

      5. Wait, I said nothing about most people. I said I, an individual, would not feel free and I said it was bad to speak for most people, which should preclude me me from doing so.

        And, the point of a right being fundamental and protected by the constitution is that it cannot be left to its popularity in a state legislature, even if I did believe it was supported by a majority of the people. For example I am pretty sure that most Americans (but I am precluded from speaking for them without evidence) would oppose re-enslaving Black Americans (now) or taking away their right to vote, but I wouldn’t leave the decision to the Texas legislature.

        Like

      6. The idea of removing legal restrictions to abortion is not about some mythical place where abortion exists with women saying “hey I don’t want this 8 month pregnancy.” The issue is that government should not be making laws around when an abortion can be performed – that is a medical decision and should be left to doctors. We don’t pass laws saying that tonsillectomies can only be done in certain circumstances; we leave that to medical professionals to set standards of care. The same should be true for abortion.

        Like

  9. Looks like Lonsdale (Palentir, men shouldn’t take paternity leave, or at least if they do they are weak wimps, and the guy who dates undergraduates he mentors) appears to be one of the official sponsors. I don’t care if there’s a university that I wouldn’t go to, but I still think this is a PR move among the “I’m being cancelled” people. Maybe it will be a think tank that calls itself a university? the proof will be whether students (well, or more specifically their parents) will pay to go there.

    Like

    1. “the proof will be whether students (well, or more specifically their parents) will pay to go there.” The UC Irvine strategy to blast its way into the big leagues among law schools was to go really cheap (maybe free?) for tuition for the first few years, that got them a really strong student body which moved them way up in the ratings.

      Like

      1. ds wrote, “The UC Irvine strategy to blast its way into the big leagues among law schools was to go really cheap (maybe free?) for tuition for the first few years, that got them a really strong student body which moved them way up in the ratings.”

        That is clever!

        Like

    2. Drezner wrote a good summary, without calling the group grifters, but pointing out an essential internal conflict to being dedicated to fearless truth seeking, but wanting Lonsdale to have ultimate say on tenure.

      Instead of grift, he calls it seeking conservative sleepy (as opposed to woke) capital.

      Like

Comments are closed.